Death Penalty News

Anthony Boyd , set to be executed on Thursday, requested that Gov. Kay Ivey meet with him before carrying out his sentence An Alabama death row inmate scheduled to be executed this week is pleading with Gov. Kay Ivey to meet with him in person before his death, insisting that he is innocent and has never received a fair hearing in court. Anthony Boyd had his plea recorded on Monday night from a prison phone call. During a press conference Tuesday morning, hosted by the nonprofit Execution Intervention Project , his spiritual advisor, Dr. Rev. Jeff Hood, shared his message. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); July 19, 2025: Manouchehr Fallah and Peyman Farahavar, two political prisoners sentenced to death without due process and fair trial rights, are currently awaiting the Supreme Court decision in Rasht Central Prison. IHRNGO draws the international community and public’s attention to the case of the two political prisoners who are at potential risk of execution. According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, Manouchehr Fallah (right) and Peyman Farahavar (left), two political prisoners held in Rasht (Lakan) Central Prison, are awaiting the Supreme Court’s decisions in their cases.

A new report published by Amnesty International today draws attention to a startling surge in executions in Saudi Arabia in recent years, particularly for drug-related offences, and highlights the significant impact of these on foreign nationals. Between January 2014 and June 2025, Saudi Arabia executed 1,816 people, according to the official press agency. Nearly one in three were executed for drug-related offences, which are offences that may not be punished by death under international human rights law and standards. Out of the 597 people executed for drug-related offences during the ten-year period, foreign nationals made up nearly three-quarters (75%) of such executions.

One fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ple of fair­ness upon which our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem relies is the notion that pros­e­cu­tors must dis­close excul­pa­to­ry, mate­r­i­al evi­dence favor­able to defen­dants. This Constitutional oblig­a­tion, estab­lished in Brady v. Maryland (1963), rep­re­sents a crit­i­cal safe­guard against wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Nevertheless, Brady vio­la­tions remain dis­turbing­ly com­mon, with dev­as­tat­ing con­se­quences for defen­dants who may spend years or decades wrong­ly impris­oned. The Death Penalty Information Center has iden­ti­fied more than 200 death-sen­tenced indi­vid­u­als in the mod­ern death penal­ty era whose con­vic­tions or sen­tences were over­turned due to pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct involv­ing a Brady violation.

Somali government is working to overturn death sentences imposed on nearly 40 Somali nationals currently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia as part of an effort to secure legal protections for its citizens abroad.  Somali Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Hassan Moalim announced on Friday that he had discussed the matter with the Saudi Ambassador to Somalia.  Their talks focused on ensuring Somali nationals have access to justice, as well as establishing judicial cooperation between the 2 countries.

From the beginning of 2024 until October 24th, Saudi authorities have carried out 20 executions on charges of treason, part of a total of 234 executions this year, marking an unprecedented record. In contrast, death sentences for treason this year have been issued by the Specialized Criminal Court, while in 2023, two individuals were executed on treason charges in military trials—one a colonel, the other a first sergeant. No executions for treason were recorded in 2020 or 2022, while in 2021, three people were executed for treason under discretionary sentences from the Specialized Criminal Court.

Convincing a Republican attorney general to advocate against a death sentence is a near impossible feat, but Supreme Court roadblocks could force Oklahoma to execute a man in a conviction it doesn’t accept. WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court handed Richard Glossip one loss in 2015 — and if not for a corrections department blunder, he’d be dead. Almost a decade later, Glossip returns to the high court a second time, bringing the justices mountains of support for another trial and hoping a procedural hurdle doesn’t end his case for innocence before it can begin.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Amnesty International on Wednesday criticized Iraqi authorities for carrying out the death sentences of 13 men on the same day, saying the prisoners were denied fair trial, and expressed concern that many others had been executed in secret. A total of 13 prisoners were executed in Dhi Qars Nasiriyah central prison on Monday, and scores more have been executed since April 10, said the Amnesty report citing activists and lawyers of the death row prisoners.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments centering on an Arizona death row prisoner that could set new precedent to determining ineffective assistance of counsel.  A Mohave County Superior Court jury convicted Danny Lee Jones for the 1992 murders of Robert Weaver and his daughter Tisha, as well as the attempted murder of Weaver’s grandmother. A judge sentenced Jones to death for the two murders.

Men executed in accordance with Shariah law, despite appeals from human rights organizations Five Pakistani nationals have been reportedly executed in Saudi Arabia following convictions for murder and robbery, according to reports from foreign media sources. The individuals were implicated in a crime involving the killing of a watchman during a robbery at a private company.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday called on the Iraqi government to declare a moratorium on all executions “with a view to abolish the death penalty,” after the emergence of reports of the mass execution of 13 inmates in a prison in Nasiriyah, southern Iraq. Thirteen men in Nasiriyah’s al-Hout prison were executed on December 25,  in what was the first mass execution since November 2020, when  21 men were executed for terrorism charges, according to HRW's report on the issue.  

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); January 23, 2024: State media reported the execution of “Woman, Life, Freedom” protester Mohammad Ghobadlu in Ghezelhesar Prison. He was awaiting retrial after his death sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court, per his lawyer. Iran Human Rights condemns Mohammad Ghobadlu’s execution in the strongest terms and calls on the international community to stop the Islamic Republic’s execution machine by creating strong backlash.

Iranian Kurdish man Reza (Gholamreza) Rasaei is at imminent risk of execution in relation to the September-December 2022 nationwide protests.  On 16 December 2023, Branch 17 of the Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence for “murder”, which were issued by a criminal court following a grossly unfair trial that admitted his torture-tainted forced “confessions” as “evidence”. On 31 December, his sentence was sent for implementation, amid an ongoing alarming spike in executions across the country.  

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); November 24, 2023: Milad Zohrevand, a Malayer protester arrested during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” nationwide protests, was secretly executed for murder charges in Hamedan Central Prison. At least 684 people have been executed in Iran in 2023. Executions have surged since the start of the war in Gaza, with at least 152 executed by the Islamic Republic since 7 October 2023. IHRNGO condemns Milad Zohrevand’s execution in the strongest terms and urges an appropriate response by the international community.

The U.S. Army on Monday set aside the court-martial convictions from a century ago of 110 African American soldiers, including 19 who were executed, saying they were denied fair trials in a landmark acknowledgement of official racism in America. The Army Board for Correction of Military Records overturned the convictions, restoring their service records as having concluded honorably and making their descendants eligible for military benefits, the Army said in a statement.

In the annals of Japan's criminal justice system, few cases have captured the nation's attention and stirred global outrage as much as that of Iwao Hakamada. His story is a tragic tale of wrongful conviction, decades spent on death row, and an ongoing fight for justice.  Circumstantial Evidence Iwao Hakamada's ordeal began in 1966 when he was arrested and charged with the brutal murder of a family of four in Shizuoka, Japan. 

The apex court observed that the trial was conducted in a "hurried manner" The Supreme Court has set aside the conviction of a man who was awarded the death sentence for the alleged rape and murder of a three-month-old infant girl and has ordered a retrial in the case, noting that the accused was not provided the "proper opportunity" by the trial court to defend himself.  The apex court observed that the trial was conducted in a "hurried manner". 

As a nation that claims to uphold human rights, it is puzzling that Indonesia retains the death penalty in its criminal justice system. The problem with our capital punishment is not just the fact that it is irreversible, but also because of the country’s corrupt system that allows room for miscarriages of justice. In commemorating World Day Against the Death Penalty on Tuesday, we join human rights groups in renewing our call on the government to abolish the death penalty, not only because the country’s judicial system is prone to mistakes, but also because of human rights violations that many death-row inmates have endured.

On September 18, 2023, former Texas death-sentenced prisoner Clinton Young filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the Western District of Texas, accusing two Midland County district attorneys, the prosecutor on his case, and Midland County itself, for violating his constitutional right to a fair trial.  Just four months after his 18th birthday in 2001, Mr. Young and 2 others, David Page and Darnell McCoy, went on a drug-induced spree that resulted in the deaths of two individuals.  In 2003, Mr. Young was sentenced to death for these murders. He admitted that he was present during the cross-Texas trip that resulted in these deaths but maintained that he did not shoot anyone. 

Vietnam has executed long-time death row prisoner Le Van Manh, a lawyer confirmed Saturday, despite international pleas to spare his life. In 2005 Manh was charged with robbery, as well as the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in the northern Thanh Hoa province. The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said police obtained a confession through torture that was relied upon to convict him. Manh later retracted the confession, saying that police had beaten him severely.